The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-09-30


get the faults of those who are the
subjects of attack while attempting to
drive back the slanderers. Helen Stirk,
a Scotch martyr, condemned with her
husband to death for Christ's sake,
said to her husband: "Rejoice,
we have lived together many
joyful days, but this day wherein we must
die together ought to be most joyful to us
both. Therefore, I will not bid you good
night, for soon we shall meet in the
Heavenly kingdom" BY the flash of the
furnace che best Christian character
is demon Strated.
go inso another department, and l find
that those great denominations of Chris
tians which have been most abused have
spread the most rapidly. No good man
was ever more vilely treated than John
Wesley. His followers were hooted at
and maligned and called by every de-
testable name that Internal ingenuity
could invent, but the hotter the persecu-
tion the more rapid the spread of that de
nomination until you know what a great
host they have become, and what a tre-
mendous force for God and truth they are
welding all the world over. 1t was
persecution that gave Scotland to Pres
byterianism. 1t was persecution which
gave our own land first to civil liberty
and afterward to religious freedom.
was persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the Gospel. The
ribaId mockery, the hungering and thirst
ing, the unjust trial and ignominiOus
death, where all the force of helps fury
was hurled against the cross, was the
Introduction of that religion which is yet
to be the earth's deliverance from guilt
| and suffering, and her everlasting en-
| thrOnement among the principalities of
Heaven.
The State has sometimes said to the
Church.: "Come, let me take your hand
and will help you" What has been the
| result? The Church has gone back and
has lost its estate of holiness and has be-
come ineffective. At other times the State
has said to the Church: 81 will crush
| you." What has been the result? After
the storms have spent their fury the
Church, so far from having lost any of it's
force, has increased ard is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before it.
The Church is far more indebted to the
! opposition of civil government than to its
| approval. The fires of the stake have
! only been the torches which Christ held in
his hand by the light of which the Church
has marched tOher present position. In the
sound of racks and implements of torture
! hear the rumbling of the wheels of the
! gospel chariot ScaffOlds of martyrdom
have been the stairs by which the Church
has ascended. Aquafortis is the best test
of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject impresses us
! that sins will come to exposure. Long,
| long ago had these brothers sold Joseph
! to Egypt. They had suppressed the crime,
/ and it was profound secret, well kept by
| the brothers. But suddenly the secret is
| out. The old father hears that his son is
| in Egypt, having been sold there by the
malice of his own brothers. How their
! cheeks must have burned and their hearts
| sunk at the flaming out of this suppressed
! crime. The smallest iniquity has a
| thousand tongues, and they will blab out
an exposure.
Saul was sent to destroy the Canaanites,
| their sheep and their oxen. But whom he
| got down there among the pastures he saw
some fine sheep and oxen too fat to kill,
and so he thought he would steal them.
He drove them towards home, but stopped
to report to the prophet how well he had
executed his commission, when in the dis
| tance the sheep began to bleat and the
oxen to below. The secret was out, and
| Samuel said to the blushing and con-
| founded Saul:
Wheat means the bleating of the sheep that
| hear and the lowing Of the cattle.
Aye, my hearers, you can not keep an
! iniquity quiet. At just the wrong time
! the sheep will bleat and the oxen viii bel
! low. Achan can not steal the Babylonish
! garment without getting stoned to death,
nor Benedict Arnold betray his country
without having his neck stretched. Look
over the police arrests-these thieves,
| these burglars, these adulterers, these
| counterfeiters, these highwaymen, these
Rssassins. They all thought they could
| bury their iniquity so deep down that it
| would never como to resurrection. But
! there was some shoe that answered to the
! print in the sand, some false keys found
in possession, some bloody knife that
whisperedof the deed, and the public indig-
| nation and the anathema of outraged law
! hurled him into the TOmbs or hoisted him
ON the gallows.
At the close of the battle between the
| Dauphin of France and the Helvetians,
| Burchard Monk elated with the
victory that he lifted his helmet to look
off upon the field, whom a wounded soldier
| hurled stone that struck his uncovered
forehead and he fell. Sin will always
leave some point exposed, and there is no
safety in iniquity. Francis the First, King
of France, was discussing how it was best
to get his army into Italy. Amaril, the
court fool, sprang out from the corner and
said to the King and his staff officers
"You had better be thinking how you will
get your army back out of Italy after
once you have entered"
In other words, it is easier for us to get
into sin than to get out of it.
| Whitefeld was riding on horseback
| in a lonely way with some missionary
| money in sack fastened to the
saddle-bags. A highwayman spraug out
| from the thicket and put his hand out to.
ward the gold, when Whitefeld turned
| upon him and said: "That belongs to the
| Lord Jesus Christ; touch it if you dare, -
and the william fell back empty-handed
| into the thicket. o, the power Of con-
| sciencel If offended it becomes Gods
/ avenging minister. Do not think that
you can hide any great and protracted sin
in your hearts. In an unguarded moment
it will slip off of the lip, or some slight oc-
| casiOn may for a moment set ajar this
| door of hell that you wanted TO keep
| closed. But suppose that in this life you
hide it, and you get along with that trans.
gression burning in your heart, as a ship
| on fire within for days may hinder the
| flame from bursting out by keeping down
| the hatchways, yet at last, in the iudg-
ment that iniquity will blaze out before
the throne Of God and the universe.
! Furthermore, learn from this subject the
| inseparable connection between all events
! however remote. Lord Hastings was be-
| headed one year after he had caused the
death of the Queens children, in the very
| month, the very day, tho very hour and
/ the very moment. There is wonderful
precision in the Divine judgments. The
universe is only one thought OF God.
/ Those things which seem fragmentary and
isolated are only different parts of that
one great thought. How far apart seemed
| these two events-Jo oseph sold to the
| Arabian merchants and the ruiership OF
| Egypt. Yet you SEQ in what a mysterious
[ way God connected the two in one plan.
So all events are linked together. You
who are aged can look back and group
! together a thousand things in your life
that once seemed isolate. One un-
] Al--.aol II. II ..--...A- -....l..l L..